wfn.org | United Methodist Committee on Relief Workers Missing in Haiti

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Concerns mount for missing UMCOR workers

A massive earthquake struck about 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12.

> A UMNS Report
> By Linda Bloom*
> Jan. 13, 2009

United Methodists throughout the world are saying prayers; donating
time, talent and money; and planning relief efforts to alleviate the
suffering of the Haitian people even as the church worries about the
fate of some of its mission workers in the devastated nation.

In the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude quake Jan. 12, church officials
on Jan. 13 were still waiting to hear from three executives of the
Board of Global Ministries who were in Haiti. Sam Dixon, top executive
of the United Methodist Committee on Relief; Clinton Rabb, head of
Mission Volunteers; and James Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, were on the
island on a mission-related trip.

No one has been able to reach the three men since the earthquake
occurred and communications with Haiti have been difficult, officials said.

"We've heard conflicting reports," said the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, an
UMCOR executive. "We've heard they were in a car on the way to the
airport. We've heard they were at the Hotel Montana having dinner. We
don't have any confirmation about what their whereabouts were when the
earthquake hit. We're still hoping and praying we hear from them soon."

According to Agence France Presse, about 200 people were missing after
the popular Hotel Montana collapsed during the earthquake.

Amid the concern, church members rallied to help begin healing the
nation rocked by an earthquake that one Haitian official estimated may
have killed more than 100,000 people.

Bishop Joel Martinez, the interim leader of the Board of Global
Ministries, said he was confident the board and its relief agency
"will save lives and restore communities with the prayerful support of
our United Methodist connection."

Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of
Bishops, said officials throughout the denomination were meeting to
see what more the church should be doing.

"We are urging every United Methodist to encourage their folks to be
in prayer, to stand in solidarity, and to give as generously as
possible through UMCOR," Palmer said.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief immediately began making
plans for an emergency response in partnership with groups such as
Action by Churches Together, Church World Service, Global Medic and
the Methodist Church in Haiti.

"We are working with our partners on the ground to provide immediate
relief to the people in Haiti," said Melissa Crutchfield, an UMCOR
executive. "UMCOR has worked in Haiti for many years. We anticipate
that there will be years of rebuilding needed and are prepared to work
with the people to help them through that process."

> 'A deeply spiritual issue'

The images of collapsed hospitals, demolished homes and bodies lying
on torn-up streets from the earthquake tear at the hearts of those who
have worked in a nation that before the natural disaster was the
poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

The Rev. Ray Buchanan, a United Methodist pastor and co-founder of
Stop Hunger Now, has been to Haiti a dozen times over the years as his
Raleigh, N.C.-based organization has provided meals for Haitian schoolchildren.

His voice choked as he talked about the importance of the faith
community's response to the earthquake.

"This is a deeply spiritual issue," he said. "We're called on to treat
each other as family. We have brothers and sisters in Haiti who are in
desperate need at the moment."

In the past two years, Stop Hunger Now has distributed more than 6
million of its dehydrated, fortified rice-soy meals in Haiti,
including a million and a half in the last two months.

Another container is ready to ship. Buchanan said he was alerted by
Haiti Outreach, a partner organization, that New York Gov. David
Patterson is donating a plane that will come to Richmond, Va., and
load up on Stop Hunger Now meals.

United Methodists were among those trying to reach family members in Haiti.

"The frustration is that we tried all night to reach my brother and
have not been able to get through, said the Rev. Molege Desir, pastor
of Vailsburg United Methodist Church in South Orange, N.J. "This
morning we were hoping it would be different, but still there's no contact.

"We need to be in prayer for them because when you don't have any
means to contact people and you have no way to get to them, the best
we can do for the moment is to pray."

> Rebuilding lives

While concern mounted for those unaccounted for, relatives and friends
of other United Methodist mission workers in Haiti felt relief as word
slowly reached them that mission teams in Haiti from the Texas, New
Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, Dakotas and Kansas East annual
conferences were safe.

Haiti is an overwhelmingly Christian country. Although the majority
are Catholic, the country has more than a million Protestants,
including the Methodist Church in Haiti, which is part of the
Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas.

The Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, top executive of the World Council of
Churches, expressed "condolences and solidarity with the people of
Haiti, as they experience the great burdens of anguish, damage, and
death because of a natural catastrophe."

Support for relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR
Advance # 418325. One hundred percent of all gifts will be used for
the emergency.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.